Time Machine Backs up 1.2 GB every time

[jleffell]

I loaded windows on a separate drive yesterday and ever since my time machine has been backing up around 1.2 GB every time. I had to leave my computer on while I was on campus today and 5 or 6 backups in a row were for ~1.2 GB.

I noticed just now that it started at about 36 MB which made sense but then shot up to 1.2 GB.

What could be going on here? Has anyone had a similar experience?

 

[skorpien]

By "loaded Windows" do you mean with Boot Camp or VMware Fusion/Parallels? If it's the latter, Time Machine will back up the entire disk image anytime something changes within (ie, you launch Windows, something changes in the disk image, TM backs it up). You have to exclude that file and/or disk from your Time Machine backups. Go into Time Machine preferences, click "Options..." and add the directory/hard drive you want to exclude from your backups.

 

[jleffell]

Sorry for my lack of clarity.

I loaded it on a separate hard disk - no virtualization.

Ever since I have been getting the TM issues. Finally, TM caused my machien to freeze last night so I unplugged the Windows HD, wiped my Time Capsule clean and am now in the process of doing another initial backup.

I am really frustrated with TM. I wonder if it is an issue of having upgraded to 10.6 rather than a clean install.

I am considering doing a clean install now. Reloading all of my files. Doing a new initial backup and then plugging in my Windows disk.

Windows causes problems everywhere it goes!

I might also consider using VMWARE or Parallels for Windows and then just raid my 2 caviar blacks but I dont have experience with that.

Why doesnt TM just work like its supposed to - it has caused my computer to freeze so many times.

 

[skorpien]

Sorry to hear about your issues. I've also upgraded to SL and I haven't had any issues with TM and my TC at all. In fact, upgrading has made things run even better for me. I have a Windows XP partition on my internal disk using Boot Camp (and also access it with Parallels) and again, absolutely no issues. The Windows disk really shouldn't be causing any issues since it's formatted as either NTFS or FAT32 (both won't be backed up by TM). The best I can guess is possibly a corrupt TM backup? I honestly can't give any advice than you've already suggested doing. Good luck in getting it to work!

 

[MythicFrost]

I believe my mum has had this problem on her MBP, it would backup 1GB or 3GB every time, it resolved itself somehow, I think it never successfully completed the backups.

Perhaps doing a backup via ethernet and making sure it's 100% finished (if you don't know if it finishes correctly)

After doing a clean install on the MBP and just transferring a few files over, it seems to be just fine, it does it's regular backups.

So that's all I can imagine doing, backup your machine - any important files, your whole user folder etc... and then do a clean install, it should fix it, but there's no guarantees.

My other idea is perhaps try repairing disk permissions in disk utility, maybe that'd do something.

Hope this helps
Kind Regards

 

[Fishrrman]

RE:
"I am really frustrated with TM. I wonder if it is an issue of having upgraded to 10.6 rather than a clean install.
I am considering doing a clean install now. Reloading all of my files. Doing a new initial backup and then plugging in my Windows disk."

Better solution:
1. GET RID of Time Machine
2. GET either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner
3. USE either app from #2
4. SMILE because you will now have a fully-bootable clone of your regular hard drive. You can't boot from a TM backup, and you are only one of many users who reports trouble with TM.

- John